Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Claire-Friendly

Nate
and I have developed a little lingo through parenting Claire, Claire-Friendly
environment is a good example. We have to think things through for Claire more than
our other children, ask questions: is this event going to be overwhelming, too
loud, too crowded? Are there
going to be directions she can successfully follow through consistency and high
enough expectations that she can’t get away with underachieving? Are the other
kids going to accept her… It sounds a
little over the top but really, it’s necessary because we have put Claire in a
lot of none Claire-Friendly environments; we try to avoid them for good reasons. It’s totally painful to watch, I’m so over
it.

Kindermusik
has been wonderful for Makenna but right now it is not a Claire-friendly
environment. The activities change
minute by minute and she just can’t keep up.
Also the kids were not nice to her, I really believe that’s a parent
problem but none the less they excluded her.
One day I was watching class from the window with my friend Christy and
was about ready to burst into tears over how my wonderful Claire was being made
into the “bad kid” and not helped to success.
Christy was like “just go get her.”
Oh, good idea, thanks awesome friend.
I don’t have to watch this implode; I can just say "this isn't working;
we’ll try it again another time." Taking
a brake doesn't mean Claire won’t ever do these things, just not now. The Kindergarten class at church used to be a
no go for Claire but now she seems to be doing okay in there.

I’m
totally intimidated about swim lessons with Claire for so many reasons. We have always had Claire and another baby or
two so I have never been able to be in the pool with her or even very close on
guard and Nate’s schedule is so inconsistent that he could never do it
ether. Sometimes Claire does pretty well
in a group but so much of it depends on how it’s presented to her. With some people she refuses to listen and
gets nothing accomplished and with others she is a super star. Generally, she does not do well with overly
soft, smiley correction. She is like, oh
you are smiling while you say no, you must find this very entertaining, I’ll
kick it up a few notches. Horseback
riding was tough because she had a different helper every week. Some volunteers she
listened to and more that she jumped off the horse to entertain. We would talk to one about how to work with
her and then they would be gone the next week or just so seduced by her cuteness
that they couldn't keep a straight face correcting her. She really needs expectations and consequences. Fortunately, her teacher at school seems to be totally on top of everything she needs. Anyway, swim lessons could be great or she could disobey
and that could be pretty bad with water.

We
went to the pumpkin patch at Green Bluff Sunday and Claire went on the train
ride all around a field, it had individual cars made out of plastic drums that
swayed from side to side. Last year
there was no way I would have even thought to attempt putting her on that
train but she did awesome. I was so
proud of her and just socked it in, it's such a blessing when Claire can jump into an activity without a lot of fussing and explaining and spotting. She did great and had a
great time with it.